Gribz

I think its a positional thing with Ferguson. He is not an attacking midfielder but yet when he plays defensive he is dictating his own team mates moves and isnt that effective. Hemdani is much more effective sitting infront of the back 4. I havent seen much of Thomson but a lot are rating him and he could develop into a Stuart McCall type of player for us. Having Hemdani and Thomson can play together but then we need a creative player and Ferguson just isnt that.

Yeah Id go with that. Frankie mentioned maybe dropping Hemdani or Thomson so we could play a right sided player but the solution to keeping Hemdani and Thomson is to play 2 upfront and drop the 3rd centre mid man. If we go 4-4-2 then id go with your team but id still like to see Sebo or Novo play upfront with another striker so again Id drop Boyd. I just cant see WS dropping Ferguson or Boyd, they are absolute bankers to start everyweek. If he keeps this 4-2-3-1 formation then he should change the personell to this: ________________McGregor_____________ Hutton_____Weir_______Cuellar_____Smith __________Hemdani___Thomson__________ __Beasley_______Gow/Buffel______McCulloch _______________Darcheville________________

Not the best end to the tour but players gaining fitness is one of the aims. The other aim is to gel a system together for the season and its depressing to read this 4-2-3-1. As said earlier we just dont have the players for this system. Has Boyd got something in his contract that states he must play upfront on his own??? Why is this still happening!! Smith knows he cant get about or he wouldnt have dropped him for Sebo in the last trip to Parkhead. We should at least be trying other partnerships out like Darcheville and Novo for e.g. Agree about Ferguson, the captaincy ruined him game a bit. I said this years ago. When he returned from Blackburn he should never have been handed it back, he may actually do what he is told if he wasnt captain. As for dropping him Id keep him in there in a 4-4-2 but if Smith persists with this 4-2-3-1 (which can work if played properly) then there is a case for Ferguson to be dropped and play Thomson and Hemdani in the "2" with giving Gow or Buffel the role behind Darcheville / Sebo / McCulloch or Novo - but not Boyd.

Interesting, I thought Kaunas would be favourites here. Hopefully Zeta take it onto the 2nd leg as it would be good to see Romanov not qualify.

I was just asking coz I know he played there for Scotland, even though he didnt got out his own half.

Going by tonight its Beasley starting as left winger. Nothing wrong with that but I prefer a flat midfield 4 when we have the personnel now.

Just reading the line up from tonights game and we are playing Boyd upfront on his own again. If we are going to do this when the season starts whats the point in signing Naismith. We will already have Darcheville, Sebo and Novo all waiting on the bench and of course McCulloch can play there

Id say its more like a 4-3-2-1 as Ferguson will play deep. I hope we dont go with this all season, id much rather see 2 strikers. Boyd just cant play upfront on his own, that was a key note from last season.

Someone has to come up with these things when he is away. But seriously, I was just wondering if he could fill in there if required. Im pretty sure Craig Brown played him at right side of the defence for Scotland. Obviously he wont be flying up and down the wing but he could still move across one and allow Cuellar and Webster in the middle.

He should have had a year or 2 in Milan then moved to the states, im sure he would still have got the offer. Even if it was Ronaldohino I couldnt understand the 400k a week. But for Beck: Footballing decision - sell out Money decision - Brainy one! BTW, Posh spice has absolute zero talent, she cant even sing and is easy carried by the other 4 spice girls. She will be a laughing stock in the movies.

Whats wrong with Buffel now?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zg3uS4ZBHtM

With Pre-season friendlies well under way I thought id kick up a debate prior to the Champions League qualifiers. Over the summer weeks we have spoke about players coming in and out and all the rumours. But after getting plenty additions for the squad it looks as thought the trolley is full and we are at the check-outs after spending the best part of 6 million. Whether those who have came in are good enough is another debate, we all believe the depth in the squad is better but we all agree we could have been done with a higher profile name or two to go straight into the starting line up. So, after 2 trophyless seasons what must our realistic targets be for this season? and are we well enough equipped to meet that targets? Lets break it down into each competition we will enter. SPL - Finishing 3rd 2 seasons ago was a wake up call and last season we expected huge improvement only for it to get worse. If Walter Smith did not arrive then its anyones guess where we would have finished. But he improved us and we created a gap between ourselves and the pack chasing 2nd place. This season Smith doesnt have the excuse he is steading the ship - thats been done. However we did look the more stronger in the 2nd half of last season. We need to get off to a good start and the silly results against the bottom sides must be erased. Smith has shown he still knows how to get the better of Celtic so let that continue. The aim IMO is to win the league, its certainly not out of our reach, but at the minimum we have to at least be in the hunt by easter and not have it all over by Halloween. Domestic Cups - The less said about last years runs the better. They were nothing less than embarrassing. The 90s saw us winning cups left, right and centre but we havent been to Hampden for a Scottish cup final for 5 years now. Again IMO we should be looking to lift one of the cups, preferrably the Scottish cup. Europe - Champions League qualification is a MUST for financial reasons and to give us something to look forward to. It is also huge to get us progressing again on the park. Are we equipped to take on the big boys - No, probably not yet but we will still give it a crack. A good run would be to finish 3rd in a group (depending who we draw) and then entering the UEFA cup after Xmas. Anything more from the CL is a bonus, but we cant let Celtic go on and have another crack at it while making 10 million in the process while we are not even in it. Time will tell Bears but I expect us to be stronger domestically than the previous 2 seasons.

Reading the reports is giving me some doubt about the depth in the full backs positions. It seems like we may end up relying on Hutton a bit much this year. Murray obviously isnt up to the job of LB or RB and there is this new doubt about Steven Smiths injury. That leaves Papac for LB and only Lowing to cover Hutton. Fingers crossed Smith recovers but god forbid if Hutton gets injured. Am I correct in saying Davie Weir played RB for Scotland under Craig Brown? Im pretty sure he did around the time we beat England at Wembley. The back 4 that day was Weir, Dailly, Hendry and Davidson.

Strange one this. What could we have possibly done wrong with the Boumsong deal? He came in on a free and stated he wanted to move to the Premiership and got his wish. We did a good bit of business here IMO.

Bad news if this is true. What is wrong with him anyway? I hope its not true, as said above he has potential to be Rangers and Scotland LB for the next 10 years. And it would be tragic for the lad.

Im not denying that he doesnt deserve credit for the way he has fought back this year. My opinions changed on Beckham after the 98 WC and 2000 Euros when he received all that death threats, only for him to come back stronger. I thought he handled that superb. But I think there would have been a few offers coming in for him, but he went for the money option rather than the footballing one. He hardly needs the money anyway. But Milan and Newcastle definatly interested in him.

My Hangover is today C'mon the Gers :cheers:

Duriee Durieee Durieee Awesome Player Gers normally do well in the masters but thats due to Walters. We need Lauders next year

Football wise he is a sell-out

Phase one complete. Lets see if he can run a bit faster and control a ball but I applaud his efforts in losing weight.

And il say I told you so when he comes good and makes Boyd look rank (which wont be difficult) :cheers:

But he is spot on though

Great news for us. He was very consistant for most of the season and only Hemdani pipped him to POTY, he well impressed me last season. Everyone was raving about S Smith at the start but we fininshed raving about Hutton at the end. Agree with the above, one of my favourites atm aswell and if he plays this season like last then we're laughing. Plus he should get a good few Scotland caps, any donkey can see he is better than Alexander or Murty or whoever plays at RB.

Fook me! I really hope West Ham get them in the cup next season